NY Post: Farina Says No Excuse For Students Who Took A Snow Day

Wow, Chancellor Farina now rivaling Cathie Black for eye-raising statements.

Here's the latest, as reported by the NY Post:

Farina also callously declared that students who were absent from school Thursday would not be given a pass for taking the day off.

“At the course of a whole day, you can still get to school,” she said.

The Daily News reports that only 45% of NYC school children showed up to school today, so that's an awful lot of unexcused absences Chancellor Farina will be tallying up.

I was too busy teaching the handful of students who showed up to my classes today a rigorous Common Core-based lesson to watch the De Blasio/Farina presser, but I have to say that's the kind of statement that pisses parents off and solidifies the meme that the person who made the statement is clueless (as the Post put it.)

Especially when the same person earlier said “It’s absolutely a beautiful day out there..." as it was sleeting and raining on top of the 9-10 inches of snow that had fallen.

BTW, the chancellor's town hall meeting that was to be held in Brownsville tonight was canceled “due to inclement weather.”

Not so beautiful a day that the town hall meeting could go on.

The problem for Farina here is that she not only made a very poor decision to call school at 10:30 the night before the storm even started, but she has defended that decision with absolutely tone deaf statements that have helped make her one of the newest Internet memes.

Like here:

Or here:

She's not helping herself by stating that students who took the day off will not be given a pass because “At the course of a whole day, you can still get to school."

In fact, De Blasio and Farina both spent a lot of political capital today defending a poor decision.

It's never good when something you say becomes the target of Internet meme mockery or the target of an Al Roker twitter barrage.

De Blasio had no problem apologizing to the entire UES over a manufactured snow outrage last month.

But for some reason, neither he nor his chancellor will acknowledge the poor decision they made here or stop compounding it by saying stupid stuff to defend it.

The Latest Cache Of Cathie Black Emails (UPDATED)

UPDATED - 9:45 PM: Sergio Hernandez points out the first batch of Cathie Black emails came from the mayor's office, this batch is from the DOE.

Here's a rundown on some of the stuff from the latest batch of Black emails that's come out so far:

.@MikeBloomberg to Cathie Black: "All we have to do next week is fix public education. Alot easier than creating a national newspaper."
— Lisa Fleisher (@lisafleisher) December 7, 2013

She needed @NYCSchools staff to give her SUBWAY DIRECTIONS #CBEmails
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 7, 2013

Cathie Black’s child abuse prevention training was an online course.
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

.@artmcfarland7 interviewed cathie black for @ABC7NY, then offered OTR feedback & wished her success. Objective! pic.twitter.com/EIs1Yde9R3
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

Cathie Black lays into @MikeBloomberg: “Frankly this sucks and I cannot imagine a more poorly thought out decision on mb side.”
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

Bloomberg lawyer to Cathie Black: “Also (and I hate to ask this), the fingerprinting card requires height and weight” http://t.co/rCoNVmSjZ9
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

SH loves how Cathie Black refers to herself in the third person as “cpb”
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

exDOE comms director @nravitz to C Black: “just came off the golf course with Steve Elkin from Bergdorf’s who raved about you.” rich people!
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

Sergio Hernandez really did a public service by fighting Bloomberg to get these emails released.

Great stuff - exposes Bloomberg and his minions as the isolated, arrogant elites they are.

Same goes for a member of the press like Art "OTR Feedback" McFarland.

Cathie Black's Four Tips On How To Be A Leader

Cathie Black is back in the news, offering advice on how to be a leader to the Daily Muse.

She is described as a "former chairman of Hearst Magazines, best-selling author, advisor, investor and board member in digital start-ups and entrepreneurial companies," but not once is her ill-fated 96 day chancellorship of NYC schools mentioned in the piece.

We here at Perdido Street School, having been keen Black-watchers the past few years since she got run out of the NYCDOE, have our own Cathie Black tips for leadership.

First, know absolutely nothing about the job you're doing, the people who work under you, and the kids you're supposed to be working for.  If possible, have contempt for all of those people and things and show that contempt by mocking people as you close their kids' schools or by suggesting birth control as a solution for all the problems those people bring to you for resolution.  Or even better - reference the Holocaust when talking about making choices about schools.

Second, hide in your office when it becomes clear that the people and your own underlings (including those at Tweed) have as much contempt for you as you have for them.  Go MIA for as long as possible, never give an interview to the press or allow a reporter anywhere near you, as you have no idea what you're talking about and can be assured that if you open your mouth to the press, you will only confirm that fact to others.

Third, drink as much as possible to hide your pain.  Attend as many parties as possible, where social drinking is accepted, but go over the limit as often as you can and sometimes take out a tree on the way home with your car.  Then have your p.r. flak insist you weren't driving drunk and tell the press that the driveaway where the other 20 cars made it out okay was too narrow for you and you just couldn't help but ding a couple of cars and killing a tree on the way out.

Fourth, try and re-emerge into the business world after the disaster that was your 96 day wonder chancellorship by offering an idiotic little piece like "How To Be A Leader" at the Daily Muse even though it's clear you do not know the first thing about good leadership and frankly wouldn't know a good leader if you fell over one on the way home from Happy Hour.  Know that your entire career has been enabled by nepotism and cronyism, that knowing and socializing with the right people means more than anything else in 2013 America.

These are the tips we here at Perdido Street School have picked up from watching Ms. Black work her magic on both the private and the public sectors.

Now you don't have to read her little Daily Muse article or, heaven forbid, buy her books on leadership skills.

DOE Tells Parents Of Wait-Listed Kindergartners To Send Their Kids To $16,000 Private School

With the NYCDOE, it's "children first...always":

Officials at a popular lower Manhattan public school have outraged dozens of parents whose kids are wait-listed for kindergarten by suggesting that they consider a $16,000-a-year private school down the block instead.

In an e-mail to prospective parents, PS 276 staffers gave parents scant hope of landing an open slot while touting the opening of “The Learning Experience Children’s Academy,” a new private school set to open next week.

The sales pitch hailed the private school’s class-size limits of 16 kids, and noted that it models its program on the Department of Education’s “core curriculum” for kindergarten.

Unmentioned in the e-mail from parent coordinator Erica Weldon — on which PS 276 principal Terri Ruyter is copied — is the private school’s price tag of $1,600 per month for 10 months, with summers off.

Well, I guess this solution is better than the last one the DOE came up with - birth control for parents to keep the kindergarten population down.

But something the NY Post fails to mention is just how "hot" this new Learning Experience Children's Academy chain is - and indeed, it is a "chain."

Here's a press release from the company crowing over their new Manhattan location:

NEW YORK, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Learning Experience® (TLE®), the nation's top growing early learning academy for children 6 weeks to 5 years old, announced today it has opened its first Manhattan location. The newest TLE® Children's Academy, the 150th location nationwide, is located at 20 West Street, New York City, NY.

On the heels of a study released by the Education Department stating that nearly 5,000 children qualified for gifted and talented kindergarten seats in New York City public schools in the fall (22 percent more than last year), TLE's® Brooklyn location reported that 100 percent of its center's children that qualified for kindergarten passed the New York City Gifted and Talented test and 85 percent were already performing at the first grade level.

"In spite of, or possible directly related to our economic displacement, parents are stressing advancement through early education as a high priority for their children," says Richard Weissman, TLE® President. "Our nationally proven platform is best suited to instill preschoolers with the necessary tools for future academic and life successes."

The 9,600-square-foot state-of-the-art center in the landmark Art Deco building, formerly the Downtown Athletic Club in Battery Park City, Manhattan, will serve the growing demand of parents who wish for their children to be fully prepared for grade school, and beyond. The exceptional, high-quality curriculum - including yoga, early reading program Fun with Phonics®, sign language for infants, foreign languages such as Spanish, and manners and etiquette - has 90 percent of children enrolled at TLE® reading before the age of 4.

Averaging a center opening every 15 days, TLE® has a growth rate of 81 percent for the past 7 years. "We recognized the continuing demand for high-level preschool education in Manhattan and sought to bring our centers to key locations throughout the city for some time," said Mr. Weissman. "We bring more than 30 years of educational and business success to the market, which makes this a perfect fit for an established city."

Headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., TLE® is thriving and continues to be a leader in the advanced preschool industry with a mix of company-owned and franchised locations. In addition to the Manhattan location, TLE® has a prominent presence throughout the Tri-State area with over 60 centers in New Jersey, 5 in Connecticut, and 13 in New York, including one in Brooklyn, and several more scheduled to open throughout the 5 boroughs including Staten Island.

Gee, it sounds wonderful. I mean, who wouldn't love a school that offers yoga for four year olds.

And yet, I seem to remember that the DOE letter to parents with wait-listed kids stated how the Learning Experience Children's Academy stresses a "core curriculum," you know, like the Common Core curriculum the NYCDOE uses to indoctrinate, er, educate children for 21st century feudalism, er, challenges.

Is yoga for four year olds part of that "core curriculum"?

Or do you have to pay $16,000 a year to get that?

Just wondering.

Oh, and you know what else I noticed about the Learning Experience Children's Academy?

It doesn't seem to be obsessed with standardized testing and test prep.

Indeed, they still have something call "playtime" on what they call Make Believe Boulevard, an indoor Main Street, USA playset that allows for socio-dramatic play.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most NYCDOE kindergartens don't have this kind of thing anymore, do they?

I can't say for certain, but I just don't there's a "socio-dramatic play" component in the Common Core curriculum.

Not in between all that test prep and drills they're doing...

Bloomberg and Black Ring In The New Year

Times Square, New Year's Eve, 2011 - Bloomberg kisses Cathie Black at the stroke of midnight.

It's nice to see that Bloomberg harbors no ill feelings toward the woman who not only wasn't able to fire half of all New York City teachers - as the mayor wanted - but couldn't even save her own chancellorship.

The nice thing is, she landed on her face, er, feet in the Hamptons, re-emerged in New York City society with a splendid party she gave late last year that the mayor himself attended, showed up in Zuccotti Park to support Occupy Wall Street (or to just take a break from, uh, driving), got help from the Bloomberg administration in keeping her emails secret, and helped ring in the New Year dressed as Lady Gaga in Times Square last night.

She's really turned things around, hasn't she?

Why just last year she was the laughing stock of the city (except for all those kids, parents and teachers who had to deal with her crazy policy initiatives like dealing with school overcrowding by forcing stringent birth control onto people in various neighborhoods...)

Now she's back on stage looking so splendid that even the NY Post is raving about her.

Heck, let's give that woman a value-added "highly effective" bonus.

She's really adding value to this city.

Or if not that, at least this blog.

Dedicated To Cathie Black

You are an embarrassment:

Fake Cathie Black

The fake Cathie Black Twitter account doesn't seem to have the same juice as the fake Rahm Emanuel Twitter account, but I think this tweet is particularly telling:

once, when I was at USA Today, a bad flu went around, and we had to close the issue with 1/2 of our staff. NYC teachers'll be fine

.
That pretty much is the attitude, isn't it?

Meanwhile, the schools have taken nine (and soon to be ten) rounds of budget cuts, but Tweed gets to ratchet up the money on outside consultants and no-bid contracts.

It truly is a Tale of Two Cities.

Principals: Cathie Black Makes Bad Business Decisions

I would have to agree with this:

They wanted half, but the Education Department Monday night said it would only take 30% of the money prudent principals had saved for next year.

The move is unlikely to quell principals' anger.

Chiara Coletti, spokeswoman for the principals union, called the compromise "capricious," adding: "They should have trusted the principals to know how to best use their savings for kids."

"It's simply a bad business decision sending the wrong message to frugal and fiscally responsible principals throughout New York City," said Edward Tom, principal of the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics.

Principals have until March 18 to decide whether to take the deal or spend the saved funds this school year.

In a statement, Schools Chancellor Cathie Black said that after "thoughtful feedback" from principals, the department had crafted a solution to help them keep making "prudent, long-term budget decisions."

Cathie Black is, to be frank, full of shit that the "thoughtful feedback" helped her craft a solution to help principals make "prudent, long-term budget decisions."

The criticism forced her to try and walk back the decision to STEAL 50% of the unused school money, but STILL save face and garner some cash by saying she'll ONLY take 30%.

Not good enough, Ms. Black,

I think the principals are right on the substance of this - to punish principals who have tried to be judicious with their funds is just a bad idea.

But coming from the woman who thinks birth control is the solution to school overcrowding, can you really expect any good ideas?

Bloomberg Won't Let Clueless Cathie Black Talk To Associated Press

Apparently learning from the New York Magazine fiasco, Mayor Moneybags has reinstituted the media gag on Clueless Cathie Black, barring the Associated Press from speaking to the NYC schools chancellor for an article chronicling her first few weeks in office.

Wonder what Bloomberg used for the gag?

Condoms?

Scotch?

Cathie Black's own foot?

Whatever he used, he's keeping her quiet because the only thing they can trust her with is scripted ed deform boilerplate.

And even that she can't get quite right.

So best to keep her quiet.

Let's see how long this lasts - both the media gag and the chancellorship.

I still maintain that a few more months of mishaps, and Cathie with an "i" might just decide she needs to spend more time with her family.

Cathie Black Booed In Queens

Cathie Black is managing to get booed in every borough. Last night she went to Kew Gardens and heard the boo birds there at PS 165:

Schools Chancellor Cathie Black received an earful Monday night during a town hall meeting in Queens.

Black addressed parents and teachers at P.S. 165 in Kew Gardens Hills.

At one point she was heckled by the crowd when they felt she wasn't answering their questions.

She did manage to score some points when she told them that when it comes to laying off teachers, "last in, first out" was not the way to go.

But by the end of the night, many parents gave Black a failing grade.

"The chancellor did a horrible job. She didn't answer one question. She doesn't care about the children at all. She just cares about numbers and statistics. There's no love in her eyes, there's no love in her heart. We need a Chancellor who cares about the students --just like our teachers care about our students."

"She has a lot on her plate. I think if she had better preparation it might have been better. Given that she's only been in the position for only five weeks, I can't hold that against her. But she did seem unprepared in certain respects."

Other topics covered during the meeting were the looming cuts in state aid, the issue of overcrowding, and what parents felt was an over-emphasis on standardized testing.

Next up on the Boo Cathie Black Tour?

Maybe the Bronx, where Yankee fans who usually sit in the outfield seats and throw batteries at the opposing players can take on Ms. Black.

In all seriousness, she is a disgrace.

She jumbles up the ed deform jive she spouts off by rote, she doesn't understand the first thing about the public education system, is completely tonedeaf and clueless about the needs of children, parents and teachers, and has an inflated sense of self that clearly needs to be addressed with some much-needed ridicule.

Luckily that ridicule is coming in spades - every time she visits a school now to talk with parents or heads a PEP meeting.

One of the takeaways from that New York Magazine article yesterday was that Ms. Black was not the genius the mayor depicted her during her publishing career.

She just happened to be pretty ambitious, knew the right people and rode a couple of obvious elephants to victory (like Oprah magazine and the Food Network Magazine.) Hell, ANY magazine exec worth their rolodex could have done that.

Judging by her performance so far as chancellor, I suspect that the mayor has realized he has made a mistake, but like John McCain with Sarah Palin, he doesn't know how to judiciously and graciously extricate himself (and the NYC public school system) from it.

Cathie Black Would Rather Do Crossword Puzzles Than Listen To Parents And Teachers

Just more evidence of the disdain Black and Bloomberg have for the democratic process and people in general:

The Ed Department's rowdy meetings have taught Schools Chancellor Cathie Black a lesson in why her predecessor, Joel Klein, spent time on his BlackBerry, she told New York magazine.

Instead of emailing or playing BrickBreaker, Black paid attention at her first boisterous Panel for Educational Policy meeting last month, she said.

"You sit there and you just listen, you don't respond. They have a point of view, or they've got placards, or they wrote songs. You know, it's part of the American process," Black said.

At the meeting, parents waved condoms, referring to Black's high-profile gaffe - a joke suggesting birth control to address downtown Manhattan's school overcrowding. She also got her first taste of a boisterous and booing crowd.

"I did not bring my BlackBerry. I understand that had been a problem for too many people, including you-know-who," she added, referring to Klein, who was known for the time he spent on his. "But one could understand why you'd want to be on your BlackBerry, just doing whatever, crossword puzzles," Black said in the cover story, "The Very Public Schooling of Cathie Black," out Monday.

Far from being even-keeled last week, Black was provoked by the crowds. She mocked their boos early Wednesday morning, responding, "Oooh."

She apparently broke down on her BlackBerry use, too. "The chancellor did not have her BB for the first 3-4 hours this week at either [meeting]," Ed Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said in an email. "Later into the evening, she checked it occasionally."

Doing crosswords instead of listening to the people who get one chance to tell you why you shouldn't close down their schools?

These oligarchs and their henchmen have nothing but utter disdain for the masses.

Fraud

From last night's PEP meeting:

After more than five-and-a-half hours of testimony from hundreds of speakers, a city panel voted early Wednesday morning to close 10 schools.

...

As the panel deliberated beginning at midnight, Chancellor Cathie Black got booed by the crowd of by-then just 150 stalwart audience members when Sullivan asked about one of the locations for a charter school. "Oooh," she mimicked the crowd before responding.

The panel, which has a majority of mayoral appointees, has never voted down a closing and rarely rejects a proposal from the agency.

When the votes were in shortly after 1:15, the crowd - joined by United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew - rebuked the panel members, chanting, "fraud."

Earlier, Public Advocate Bill De Blasio asked the city to delay Tuesday's vote on two of Success Charter schools in Manhattan because he believes the city hasn't addressed parents' concerns.

Some students at Wadleigh Secondary School will have to eat lunch at 9:45 a.m. if the agency moves forward with plans to bring Harlem Success Academy 1 to the building already shared by Frederick Douglass Academy II, he noted in a letter to officials.

At the Brandeis campus, where Upper West Success is slated to move into a building already shared by five high schools, De Blasio raised several issues: overcrowding in the district, the building's recent $22 million renovation, and the "safety concerns" raised by 5-year-olds sharing space with teenagers.

"Almost invariably, when the Department of Education implements major changes to schools without listening to the concerns of parents we get an unacceptable result - a worse educational environment for our students," said De Blasio, who was among 10 elected officials and their representatives who criticized the proposals at the hearing.

Given that we have proof from the DOE itself that they KNEW they were setting up schools to fail and chose not to send additional help or resources, this vote was definitely fraudulent.

So is the woman who mimicked the crowd at the PEP.

Sounds like she was in her cups by the end of the meeting.

Perhaps it IS time to shower her with condoms and martini olives at the next PEP.

Same goes for the policies.

Cruella de Black Hears It From The Crowd

And puts her foot in her mouth once again!

New schools chancellor Cathie Black got an education in rowdiness at her first education policy meeting.

Black was repeatedly interrupted by boos and catcalls by the roughly 200 parents, students and teachers assembled in the Brooklyn Technical High School Wednesday night.

She managed to plow her way through a four-minute prepared speech but later was taunted by parents waving condoms in the air, in reference to her unpopular joke last week that "birth control" might solve downtown Manhattan's school overcrowding crisis.

"We know that we need to help those who need it most," Black told Wednesday night's crowd.

"Then why do you want to close all those schools?" called out one of the many teachers who came from one of the 26 schools slated for closure by the Education Department.

Panel for Educational Policy chairman Tino Hernandez warned the crowd to conduct themselves "with decorum."

Black sat mostly stone-faced through the more than four-hour meeting. When she responded to the one direct question she received from long-time panel member Patrick Sullivan, she referred to him as "Mr. Cunningham."

Scores of students and teachers from the John Jay campus in Park Slope came to protest the department's decision to put an elite school into the building, which houses mostly poor and mostly black and Latino students.

In a rare example of a principal speaking out publicly against department policy, Jill Bloomberg, of Secondary School for Research, said that the placement of Millennium Brooklyn was an example of putting the interests of upper income white families above those of low-income families of color.

When she went a few seconds over her allotted time, the panel turned off the sound on Bloomberg's microphone. She finished her speech by shouting and led the crowd in a chant, "Integration, yes; segregation, no."

John Jay students and parents are outraged that extra money will be provided to the deteriorating campus only if Millennium is placed in the building.

Several students also piped up.

"You are saying that our school isn't good enough for Park Slope residents," said Kwaesi Laguer, 16, an 11th grader at the Secondary School for Law on the John Jay campus. "Why don't you use the money to help make our schools better?"

The panel voted in favor of moving Millennium into the John Jay campus with 10 members voting in favor, two abstaining and none opposed.

Ah, yes - calling PEP member Patrick Sullivan "Mr. Cunningham."

Perhaps she thought she was on a Happy Days episode?

Aaaaayyy, what's up, Mr. C!!!!

Or maybe those bottles in front of her were full of vodka and gin, not water?

In any case, the policies are the same with Cruella in charge as they were when Herr Klein was in charge - starve traditional schools of funds, hand money to politically connected schools and/or charters, tune out what teachers, principals and parents have to say.

People were waving condoms at Ms. Black last night, mocking her for her comments about birth control as the solution for school overcrowding.

Next PEP, she ought to be showered with streams of toilet paper for all the crap she and her boss bring to the system.

And for the fact that she looks shit-faced at the meeting.

Uh, bartender, I'll have another drink - and make it a double!

Cathie's Choice: Bloomberg Won't Let Cathie Black Answer Questions

This can't be helpful:

Schools Chancellor Cathie Black announced her first education initiative today, by pledging $10 million to provide tutoring for struggling city students.

The money will go to 532 public elementary and middle schools, where the three-quarters of the students failed state reading and math tests last year.

...

Afterwards, Black was asked by a reporter to comment on a joke she made in a Manhattan task force meeting last week, saying that "birth control" could help school overcrowding.

The mayor said he would answer for the chancellor, said that Black made a mistake and is adjusting to public life. He then said Black is moving forward and focusing on the budget.

Not allowing his chancellor to answer her own questions.

Remember when Bloomberg said he hired Black because she was such a good manager of people?

How come she can't manage to answer her own questions?

Bloomberg Booed In Harlem

Via Queens Teacher comes the story of Mayor Bloomberg hearing the boos up in Harlem on MLK Day:

NEW YORK (WABC) -- On this Martin Luther King Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg just couldn't catch a break thanks to his new schools chancellor.

The controversy stems from Cathie Black joking about overcrowding in the schools on Friday.

"Could we just have some birth control here for a while. It could really help us a lot," she said.

But today nobody's laughing.

"Obviously, it was a joke. Nobody says it wasn't, but you don't make jokes like that when you have a massive overcrowding problem," Julie Menin of Community Board One said.

So today when Rev. Al Sharpton introduced the mayor at his annual MLK event, Bloomberg got booed.

"Come on! We're upset the choice he has made. You're choosing a business person to run an education institute," Gregory McMillan of National Action Network said.

"That lady he appointed - for education? She should never be talking about us black people need to stop having babies or need birth control," Sandra Hynson said.

In fairness to the chancellor, she never said a thing about race and birth control.

The mayor, though, deemed it bad enough.

"Cathie Black made a joke. Some people took it the wrong way. She has apologized. I think she'll learn slowly with time as did I," Mayor Bloomberg said.

This latest controversy comes as a recent poll gave Bloomberg his lowest approval rating ever, 37 percent -- but that was because of the big blizzard. His unpopularity today seemed tied solely to his new and controversial schools chancellor.

The excuse that Black was just making a joke is jive.

She made TWO offensive remarks in one hearing.

First, when she said school overcrowding could be solved by more birth control.

Next, when she compared the "tough decisions" she is going to have to make as chancellor to sending one child off to live while sending the other off to die in a Nazi death camp.

Sorry, the excuse that she was making a joke doesn't fly.

Nothing funny about either of those remarks.

Like Bloomberg, she is a blueblood who has NO CLUE that what she said was offensive.

And that is the reason why the joke excuse doesn't fly.

Both the birth control comment and the Nazi death camp reference were symbols of the larger problem with both Bloomberg and Black.

They have NO IDEA how the other half lives and they don't seem to care

Cathie's Choice: Chancellor Apologizes For Birth Control Joke During Jets Game

Cruella deBlack (aka Clueless Cathie Back) made news again yesterday when she apologized for saying birth control was the best way to deal with school overcrowding:

Schools Chancellor Cathie Black apologized yesterday for her off-color quip that birth control could help solve school overcrowding and for comparing her decisions on how to deal with limited resources to a mother deciding which of her children will live.

Julie Menin, chair of Community Board 1, told The Post that Black called her during halftime of yesterday's Jet game to say how much she regretted the remarks.

"She gave a very sincere apology, and she was very clear it didn't reflect her belief," said Menin, who was present at Black's ill-fated attempt at humor during a meeting at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's office Thursday.

"She sounded very remorseful about the comment and wanting to be able to move forward and work together, and she assured me that she took the issue of overcrowding seriously," said Menin, who had criticized Black's comments.

"I do very much appreciate that she reached out."

And guess who seems to be behind the sudden apology?

Another artless, blueblood known for stepping on people's toes and feelings:

Menin believes the apology may have been motivated in part by the Bloomberg administration's embarrassment at Black's comments.

"I think City Hall is concerned about it. I think they realize the comments were more than an off-hand joke and that parents downtown take the issue very seriously," Menin said.

Indeed, the comments were more than an off-handed joke. They're an emblem of how the mayor and the DOE leadership see the overcrowding problem - as not something to be solved by the people who created it (i.e., city planners and the mayor himself) but rather as another problem in which they displace blame onto others.

Not enough school space downtown?

That has nothing to do with the city encouraging thousands of people to move downtown after 9/11 - rather that's the fault of all those people having too many kids.

Even though most people downtown don't seem to have any more kids than Ms. Black herself or Mayor Moneybags himself have.

So apparently Cruella DeBlack - the woman who compared school spacing issues to sending children off to Nazi death camps during the same meeting that she made the birth control joke - has been forced to apologize for the birth control joke, but not the Sophie's Choice/Nazi death camp reference.

That too is an emblem of the Bloomberg/Black/Klein education policy - some schools flourish and thrive under them and are given all the resources they need while others are snuffed out.

Just ask the students from these schools about that:

A controversial school play that skewers ex-Chancellor Joel Klein debuted Friday to raucous cheers from the actors' classmates.

Pep-rally-style applause greeted student actors from two Queens high schools for their on-again, off-again adaptation of the Greek tragedy "Antigone," which slams Klein over inequalities between the schools.

"After all the hard work we put in, people finally get to see us," said 10th-grader Nneoma Okorie, 15, who played the title role. "People get to hear our side of the story."

Administrators at Jamaica High School and Queens Collegiate initially banned the play, but later allowed the show to go on.

The teacher in charge of the production called the performance a victory for free speech.

The students "demanded they be listened to," said instructor Brian Pickett.

The one-act play took aim at school officials for creating a divisive atmosphere at the two schools, which share the same building. Queens Collegiate is a new and growing school, while Jamaica has been branded a failure and is slated for closure.

The play's opening scene depicts two sisters coming home from the two schools. A character who attends Jamaica complains that she didn't have textbooks, while Antigone cheerfully describes the spiffy computers at Queens Collegiate.

Klein is depicted as the villain King Creon, who favors Antigone in the ancient play.

"We cannot continue to invest in failing schools," Klein's character declares.

"Maybe you're failing the schools," responds another character, drawing a huge cheer from the audience.

Students came up with the idea for the play, "Declassified, Struggle for Existence: We Used to Eat Lunch Together," after attending a theater course at Queensborough Community College.

The initial decision to block the play drew protests from students and advocates for free speech.

Gee - I wonder why Cruella deBlack didn't show up at Jamaica High School to do her stand-up routine about birth control and Nazi death camps as an opening act to the student play "Declassified, Struggle for Existence: We Used to Eat Lunch Together"?

Cathie's Choice: Remember Kids, Play It Safe!

New contraceptive ad:



Cathie Black says, when you're out swilling cosmos and binging on Bolivia's Finest all night, don't forget NYC Condoms.

Ms. Black no longer needs to worry about birth control when she's out swilling cosmos and binging on Bolivia's Finest, but back in the day when she did, like the old American Express card, she never left home without it.

And you shouldn't either.

Remember kids, play it safe - Put a cap on it!!!

It's good for you AND for NYC public schools!!!

Cathie's Choice: New Yorkers Comment On Cathie

Some very interesting comments on the latest Cathie Black gaffe in which she suggested birth control as a solution for school overcrowding and compared "tough decisions" she has to make on school funding and placement to sending children to a Nazi death camp:

A word of advice, Cath. You need to build up a modicum of credibility before you start with the wisecracks. Despite what you may believe, you have none when it comes to the educational system.

...

Well, what do you expect from a Waspish Park Ave matron? It's just a matter of time before her views on eugenics become public.

...

Come on, you guys. She was absolutely right. A little birth control would have been a great thing. Pity her own parents didn't use it.

...

what a sweetheart! she reminds me of Cruella DeVille.

"All right. Keep the little beasts. Do what you like with them. Drown them, for all I care."

I like it - Cruella Cathie Black.

I think we have a new name for her.

Hey, Cruella, pass me the flask...

Cathie's Choice: Even The NY Post Hammers Cathie Black For "Nazi Death Camp" Reference

Wow - you know Cathie Black is hitting bottom when even the NY Post editorial writers are hammering her:

Two weeks: That's all it took for new Schools Chancellor Cathie Black to embarrass herself and her office.

At a meeting Thursday on school overcrowding, parents hit Black with some stark data: By 2015, Lower Manhattan will be short some 1,000 school seats.

Cue Cathie the Comedienne: "Could we just have some birth control for a while? It could really help us all out a lot."

Don't quit your . . . oh, never mind.

Sure, a Department of Education spokeswoman says that Black takes the overcrowding issue "very seriously."

"She regrets if she left a different impression by making an off-handed joke in the course of that conversation."

No doubt.

Still, the joke wasn't even the worst of it. Black next tried being serious.

She told the group that every neighborhood has its own unique "issues" -- and that everyone comes tugging at the DOE for help in different directions, making it impossible to satisfy all comers.

"So it is -- and I don't mean this in any flip way -- it is, it is many Sophie's Choices. With a, you know, with a board on the wall and saying duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh."

Sophie's Choice?

So New York students either get the school of their parents' preference or . . . transport to a Nazi death camp?

Now, we don't think that the chancellor finds her students a burden, or thinks there are too many forgotten urchins in her schools.

But the circumstances of her ascension to the chancellorship were such that she has zero margin for error.

It's inexcusable for her to make jokes where birth rates -- always a sensitive issue among minority parents -- are the underlying punch line.

And if Black wants to compare overcrowded city schools to packed-in Nazi cattle cars, she may very well be in the wrong line of work.

Certainly she needs to come to terms with the stark fact that, ex officio, she acquired many, many enemies when she became chancellor. They want her to fail, and they will do everything in their power to harm her and, by extension, her principal -- Mayor Bloomberg.

Black has just given them much aid and comfort, unnecessarily so.

The chancellor truly needs to watch her words in the future.

Man, when the NY Post suggests that Cathie Black - the woman they said was "a proven manager capable of making policy" is now somebody that they say "may very well be in the wrong line of work," she's in trouble.

Michael Fiorillo makes the point in this comment that even if she goes, the corporate policies will stay the same.

And I have made that point too.

And Fiorillo also says that having her around as long as possible is good for the anti-corporate/real reformer forces.

He writes:

In fact, we should hope that she stays as long as possible. Every day she's there, she discredits Bloomberg a little more, leaving open the possibility that something will crack and expose these people for the predators and parasites they are.

I agree with that also.

She is a corporate clown, an entitled Upper East Side matron as clueless about the "other half" as Margaret Dumont is about nearly everything in the Marx Brothers movies.

That Bloomberg chose her to lead the school system - and that all the editorial writers and many in the political, business and education establishment in the state (see here, here, here, here, here, and here) and indeed, even the country (see here) - have supported that choice exposes them all to the charge that they just don't give a shit about public education, public education systems, students or teachers.

They care about the money - namely making sure they spend a whole lot less of it and steering almost all of it to privatized education interests.

Now that the Black appointment - and the support Bloomberg shills like the Post have given for it - is coming back to bite the ed deformers, they're worried that she is going to do a helluva lot more damage to the corporate ed deform movement than anything else.

And they may be right.

So, long may Chancellor Black live on to make cracks about birth control for parents as a solution for school overcrowding and references to Nazi Death Camps as the alternative to charter schools - she is EXACTLY what you ed deform guys wanted and now you have to live with her.

Cathie's Choice: The ATR Solution

Now that Cathie Black has referenced Sophie's Choice and the Holocaust in a talk she gave to parents in Tribeca the other night about how difficult school funding and spacing issues are going to be, it makes me wonder just what other "solutions" she has in mind for the various "problems" she faces as chancellor.

The ATR situation, for example.

Seriously, she has stated quite openly that when it comes to a problem, she is going to make a choice in which one sides lives and thrives, the other side gets sent off to, well, you know.

Could there be a group of people more emblematic of that kind of choice than the ATR's?

You can bet she (or Bloomberg, who is pulling the strings connected to her alcohol-soaked head anyway) will be looking for ways to finish those folks off and get them off the payroll.

I think the same can be said for veteran teachers. If you have 15+ years in the system, you are on her hit list.

Meanwhile back at Tweed, they're yucking it up over the unreliable TDR reports they plan to release to the press and bucking it up with over $2 million dollars in bonus money.

Apparently there are no Sophie's Choices down at Tweed.

Nope - just lots of money and laughs.

And back in the schools, bedbugs run free, PCB's leak from the lighting fixtures, the chancellor jokes about birth control as a solution for overcrowding and references Hitler's Final Solution when talking about the "tough decisions" she has to make.

Not even Tom Wolfe could write this stuff up and get away with it in a novel entitled the Bonfire of the Cathies.

But somehow, Bloomberg and Black are getting away with this.

So far.

We'll see how much longer.

I can't imagine she's making too many friends or allies these days with the stupid things she says.

She might find that New Yorkers have their own solution to the problems in NYC public schools - getting rid of Cathie Black.